


squirreled away

by chennieforyourthoughts



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Enchanted Forest, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Forest Guardians/Spirits, Lost in the Woods, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-23 23:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18158234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chennieforyourthoughts/pseuds/chennieforyourthoughts
Summary: Changkyun scoured the paper trail map, looking for any familiar landmarks.Not that they’d have much luck with finding anything, unless they turn around and retrace their steps, because they’re in a forest and there are these things called trees, Changkyun.





	squirreled away

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Changkyun Polyship Bingo Round 1: Bingo Square #2, forest!
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has supported my slow progress with this bingo challenge.
> 
> For reference, here is what a red squirrel sounds like: [x](https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6bg32ds>)

Unnatural silence fell with the sun; Hoseok crowded in closer to both Hyungwon and Changkyun, palms clamming. “Alright,” Changkyun sighed, kicking at the dirt by the toe of his boot. “I admit, we’re now officially lost.” Beside him, Hoseok whimpered.

“That’s why they _tell_ you not to leave the path,” Hyungwon snarked, but some of its bite faded to make way for exasperated fondness. He wrapped an arm around Hoseok while Changkyun scoured the paper trail map, looking for any familiar landmarks. _Not that they’d have much luck with finding **anything,** unless they turn around and retrace their steps, because they’re in a forest and there are these things called **trees,** Changkyun._

Hoseok leaned against Hyungwon, trying to focus on the beauty of the wood rather than the fact that they were all probably stranded in the middle of absolutely nowhere. With no food or blankets or even enough water for overnight. _Alright, the trees are pretty, right? With all their new green spring leaves, and the past fall’s fallen ones almost gone from the forest floor._

It was a national forest, pristine in its beauty even away from the trails. Hoseok noted that there were hills before them, all covered in oaks, and as he stared at the trees in ever-growing despair, he saw something in the tree closest to his right move out of the corner of his eye. He snapped towards it, yanking Hyungwon’s arm as he did so, and caught a flash of red dashing up a branch and out of sight.

“What’s wrong, hyung?” Hyungwon asked, and Changkyun finally looked away from his hopeless pursuit of the map.

“I saw something move,” Hoseok said, making an effort to stabilize his voice. “It was pretty small, though, so I don’t think it was about to eat us.”

Changkyun folded the currently useless paper and unscrewed the cap of his water canteen. “Maybe it was a squirrel? Was it red?”

“It was, and it was about the right size….” Hoseok glanced at the trees all around, but saw nothing; with a sudden flash of intuition, he looked up, and—

—There was a red squirrel hanging from a branch with its back paws, reaching out towards his upturned nose with its front ones.

Hoseok screamed at the top of his lungs and Changkyun barely restrained a startled shout. With a drawn-out sigh, Hyungwon looked up and greeted the squirrel. “Hello, little friend,” he began, and the animal blinked at him. “You’re adorable, but you’re scaring our boyfriend, so would you be so kind as to please stop reaching for him?”

The squirrel pulled its little paws back, and Hyungwon understood why Hoseok had been so spooked; each digit on the squirrel’s paws was tipped by a sharp claw, and now that Hyungwon thought about it some more, _he_ certainly wouldn’t be pleased to see daggers that close to his face, either. But now the squirrel seemed decidedly more sheepish than dangerous, having tucked its paws flat against its small chest and curled its tail backwards to keep its balance while hanging.

Before the trio’s eyes, the squirrel dropped to the ground, skittered over to first Hoseok— who moved rapidly backwards— and then Hyungwon, where it stopped and stared him straight in the eyes. “I called it!” Changkyun whisper-shouted as it lunged forward and bit the laces on Hyungwon’s hiking boot, tugging hard in the direction behind Hyungwon.

Hyungwon slowly turned his foot in an attempt to pacify the creature enough that it would stop chewing on his nice new boot, and as soon as it was facing directly behind Hyungwon and balancing was becoming more difficult for him, the squirrel let go. It stared him in the eyes again and chattered, before trotting over and nudging Hyungwon’s other foot, seeming to want it to point the same way as the repositioned one. Hyungwon dutifully moved his foot, and the squirrel chirped at him and rubbed its face against the side of his boot. The human could just barely feel the change in pressure, but the squirrel seemed to be pleased with him. The creature skittered away from him a little ways before trilling, and when it failed to get a reaction from the lost trio, appeared to roll its eyes before, in the rapidly fading light of afternoon, the squirrel’s outline stretched upwards and outwards.

After a good half-minute of squirrel-stretching, Hoseok’s eyes stopped burning as he stared at where the critter was— and there was a boy. He had retained the squirrel’s long chestnut ears and overly-fluffy tail, both sets of unnatural features jarring with his vexed pout and crossed arms. “I can’t believe you guys,” he tutted, and Changkyun’s eyeballs were nearly bulging out of his skull. “Seriously, Minhyuk hyung instructed me to help you find your way, but did any of you even _think_ to retrace your steps back to the trail? It rained last week; you can see your footprints in the wet undergrowth.”

“The Squirrel is lecturing us.” Changkyun had taken hold of Hoseok’s other hand, and everyone stared down the deer trail they had followed and saw their own footprints very clearly winking back at them.

“The Squirrel is right.” Hyungwon shrugged, and Changkyun groaned. “I was about to suggest the same thing, but he beat me to it.”

“The Squirrel has a name, you know,” squirrel-boy stated, peering at his own fingernail. “It’s Jisung. I’ve never understood how you can _do_ anything with these flimsy claws of yours, but hey, more power to you.”

Hoseok wriggled his arms, pulling his boyfriends’s attention back to him for a moment. “We should follow him,” he suggested, and Changkyun’s eyebrows shot all the way into his hairline. “What, you have any better ideas? Plus, if Jisung wanted me dead, he could have killed me a couple of minutes ago.” The boy beamed at being named, and despite the entirely odd situation, Hoseok wanted nothing more than for him to be happy like that again. “Do you have any friends out here?”

Jisung blinked blankly at Hoseok, clearly taken aback by the sudden question. “I’m friends with Minhyuk hyung, we protect the forest and the oaks together,” he replied, and Hyungwon’s heart softened. He looked over first at Changkyun, then at Hoseok, and all shared the same thought: _let’s find him another friend._

“Well, we can find one once we’re out of here,” Changkyun announced, and the matter seemed to be settled, although Jisung frowned a bit in confusion. “Please, good Jisung, lead the way!”

 _Not that the way was particularly difficult to follow, given how clear their footprints were on the forest floor,_ Hyungwon groused in his head, but at the very least Hoseok seemed to have cheered up and they probably weren’t going to starve to death in the national park. _Then again, maybe The Squirrel was actually going to murder them rather than lead them to safety, and who was this Minhyuk hyung of whom he spoke?_

Darkness snuck in rapidly, and Changkyun and Hyungwon both held on to Hoseok a little tighter. They could clearly see Jisung walking before them in the light from Hyungwon’s phone flashlight, and for a while Hoseok amused himself by counting how many times the fluff on the end of Jisung’s tail bounced up and down. When he reached six-hundred eighteen bounces, Hoseok got bored and started tracing patterns on the back of Changkyun’s hand with his fingertips. The youngest looked over at him; Hyungwon was distracted, checking the growing shadows along the sides of the deer path for dark, crouching shapes. After a moment, Changkyun began tracing the same patterns back to Hoseok, and when Hyungwon realized what they were doing, they sent the patterns down the line from Changkyun to Hoseok to Hyungwon, and then backwards with a new one.

“Man, humans are weird!” Jisung exclaimed, shaking his head, and Hyungwon rolled his eyes. When they reached the official trail, their guide stopped and twitched his ears. “Here is where we part,” Jisung informed the trio, who were practically glowing with relief. “If you would ever like to return to the park, please feel free to stop by the big oak near the parking lot! I know Minhyuk for one would be happy to meet you for real.” With that, the squirrel-boy compressed, and once his transformation was finally finished, everyone was staring at the same little red squirrel who had nearly given Hoseok a heart attack earlier. Jisung trilled and climbed up the side of Hyungwon’s jeans (Changkyun gave the creature a rather murderous look) and hauled his way up Hyungwon’s jacket until the squirrel was perched on his shoulder. Jisung’s claws were sharp, and Hyungwon worked hard to not flinch, certain the squirrel-boy would notice if he did.

One front paw hooked into the collar of Hyungwon’s leather jacket, and Jisung leaned in to whisper in his ear. “You’re not too bad, you know,” he said, voice a few octaves higher than in his human form. Hyungwon pulled back to look at him in surprise, and even in squirrel form he could tell that Jisung was huffing a little.

“Thank you, I’ll keep it in mind,” Hyungwon replied, and the squirrel nodded at him. “Do you want me to put you down on the ground now?”

“Put me on a tree, if you would be so kind.” Hoseok gasped at Jisung’s changed voice, but Hyungwon carefully lifted Jisung by the scruff of his neck and carried him over to the nearest oak tree. “Thanks, see ya!”

When Jisung’s red coat was disappearing into the upper branches of the oak, Hyungwon walked back over to Changkyun and Hoseok and took their hands in his own. “Let’s plan our next national forest date a little more carefully, okay?”

 

x x x

 

“JISUNG!” Hyungwon shouted into the oak tree. Behind him, Hoseok and Changkyun were snickering, and he shot them a dirty glare. Next to them, Chris had been taken aback by the sudden shouting, and was staring at Hyungwon like he had grown a second head…. or maybe squirrel ears. “YAH, JISUNG-AH!”

A flurry of motion in the leaves of the tree, and then Jisung was jumping from the highest branch and landing on his feet right in front of Hyungwon, who barely blinked. “You called?” Jisung teased, and Hyungwon could distinctly hear the sound of Chris suddenly chocking behind them.

“Ah, yes,” Hyungwon nodded, and turned around to point at Chris. “This is Bang Chan, he’s a new Park Ranger here. I thought maybe you would like to meet him.”

“I want to meet him, too!” A second head poked out from foliage, and this time it was Hoseok who gasped. “Hello, I’m Minhyuk!”

Minhyuk jumped as well, but he extended his arms outwards, and _wow, he was flying._ He transformed mid-flight and landed on Hoseok’s arm, a ball of fluffed grey and white. “You know, I’ve always wanted to try fresh human food, take me with you?”

Hoseok stared downwards at the critter clinging to his shirtsleeve and cooed. “You’ve got it,” Changkyun exclaimed, and Hyungwon glared at him. “What, there’s definitely room enough for him in the car!”

“Is this kidnapping?” Hyungwon asked, and Jisung laughed.

“Not if you return him this afternoon,” the other squirrel-boy replied, and Hoseok reached out to cautiously give the squirrel a pet on the head. The squirrel— no, Minhyuk— practically purred, and right then and there Hyungwon knew he had lost.

“Alright, fine, but if you get crumbs in my car I’m kicking you out.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't pet/feed/disrupt your local wildlife, even if they're really cute~
> 
>  
> 
> Also, I personally pictured Jisung and Minhyuk as forest squirrel spirits rather than hybrids or shapeshifters, but you can do whatever you would like. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
